I was moaning on Tuesday – not least on Twitter – about my inability to make good coffee at home, and as a result, I’ve been given a Nespresso machine. These are some of the pods that go in it.

It’s by far the poshest kitchen gadget I’ve ever owned. I rarely eat in restaurants with hardback menus, yet know I have one in my own home describing the 16 Nespresso “Grand Crus”…!

The coffee is very tasty – but at 30-odd pence per cup, it isn’t cheap!

I’ve been again to give blood today (you should too – see blood.co.uk). My local donor centre has just replaced its beds with these reclining chairs… I have to say that I found the process of being reclined a little unnerving!

This pair of signs features in the car park of one of my local hospitals. It’s hardly the end of the world that two nearby signs contradict one another, but I would’ve liked to think, even if only for the sake of neatness, that the person putting up the new sign on the left would have obscured or removed the old sign on the right.

I wonder, too, whether the new sign is more effective: how many people would bother to read the small print, and how many would miss the main message given the reduced font size?

This is another of John Dobson’s many contributions to Newcastle: the 1840 Market Keeper’s House. It’s notable for standing in the middle of the very modern International Centre for Life.

Originally, the downstairs housed the offices of toll collector and market keeper for the surrounding cattle market, which featured 10,000 or so animals each week. The upstairs held accommodation for their families.

Despite its historic appearance, these days it could barely house a more modern company: QuantuMDx, the current occupants, research and manufacture handheld genomic sequencers, along with similar cutting-edge near-patient diagnostic medical stuff. But I don’t think the employees’ families get to live upstairs any more…!

This is part of ~Flow, floating electro-acoustic musical machinery powered by the River Tyne. ~Flow looks a bit like a floating shed moored at Newcastle Quayside, but has intriguing musical innards which produce music according to various aspects of the Tyne’s character at any given time, from its salinity to its turbidity. Apparently, the recent flooding in the North East broke bits of it, but I think they’ve been fixed now.

~Flow forms part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and was created by the Owl Project and Ed Carter.

Monument Mall, whose cupola is on the left of this shot, is currently undergoing major redevelopment. The new configuration will fill in the mall spaces to create several large units accessed from the street, providing space for Jamie’s Italian, Armani, TK Maxx, and several other stores besides. It’s a shame in some ways, as Monument Mall used to sport some very distinctive gold and glass escalators (there’s an amazing picture of those here), but I guess small shop units are just out of fashion these days.

Earl Grey can be seen on the right, standing some 40m above Grey Street. The fascinating story of his head can be found back on day 70 of this project…

Herbert, Sherbet, Maggot and Rusty, as well as Rusty’s pet Metroshoposaurus, make up the very popular Metrognomes. They come out at the Metrocentre during school holidays with free shows to entertain children, performed four times per day throughout the holidays – a brand new show for every holiday. It must surely be the job from hell for the actors by the end of the run, not to mention the workers in the shops nearby!

Despite the frequency if the performance, The Metrognomes always attract impressive crowds for each performance, which I guess is testament to their popularity. There’s also a website with a free-to-join online Metrognomes Kids Club, which entitles kids to a free wristband and Metrognomes comic. The Metrocentre also sells oodles of Metrognomes merchandise, including DVDs and cuddly toys.

Lots of shopping centres have characters and similar schemes that appeal to kids, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that’s quite as successful or comprehensive as this!

This is one of the footpaths on the High Level Bridge linking Newcastle and Gateshead. The top deck of the High Level Bridge carries trains, whilst pedestrians and road traffic cross on the lower deck. It was opened by Queen Victoria herself, and if you’re wondering about the dates and designers, this plaque might help:

The bridge was the world’s first major wrought iron tied-arch design, and spans 1,337 feet across six spans. During the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead in 1854, it’s said that the bridge “vibrated like a thin wire”.

One has to wonder whether these not-so-good vibrations caused the first flaws in the ironwork that developed to severe cracks found when the bridge was due for restoration in 2005. These led to the bridge being closed for three years, and road traffic now being restricted to only taxis and buses in a single direction.

In the first year after it re-opened, though, some 32,000 drivers – my dad and brother included – ignored these restrictions. Perhaps, like dad and Glenn, all of them got lost and confused, ended up at the entrance to the bridge before they knew it, and were unable to turn round!

In response, Northumbria Police launched a crackdown, and fined over 1,000 drivers £30 in a few short weeks. Electronic registration number capturing monitoring equipment now automatically issues fines to anyone who breaks the rules.

I promised a second photo today, and here it is: Newcastle’s old Post Office. It’s just opposite St Nick’s Cathedral, though was built rather more recently, in the 1870s, to James Williams’s design. Williams also designed twenty or so other Post Offices, from London to Carlisle.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this building is that it marks the centre of Newcastle. Whenever road signs give a distance to Newcastle, it is the distance to this very building, and all signs to the “city centre” point in this direction. Tourists are sometimes confused about the Metro’s decision to label the nearby station “Central”, rather than reserving that title for “Monument” which is rather closer to the retail centre of the city: now you know why.

These days, the building is used by a subsidiary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Newcastle’s main customer-facing Post Office is in the corner of the first floor of WHSmith. I wonder what Williams would make of that?!

As I’ve logged on to post this, I’ve just realised that I didn’t post a picture yesterday! I’ll have to do another later to make up for my forgetfulness!

This is the Lime Street Chimney here in Newcastle. It was part of a flax mill built by John Dobson in 1840, now converted to The Cluny, one of Newcastle’s most famous bars. Everyone who’s anyone on the music scene has performed there, from the Arctic Monkeys to Danni Minogue, from Mumford & Sons to Kate Nash.

The chimney has been out of use since about 1900, and was once converted to a blacksmith’s workshop. At some point around the 1930s, the chimney was reduced in height and filled in. I hope the blacksmith had left by then, or he’d have had an awful shock when he turned up to work!